Mike Templeton
I wanted to share some information about my younger brother, David, who passed away after a brief illness on Wednesday, November 29. His passing was certainly a shock to us all! Many of you knew him, and I wanted to share some information about David and his life. He had definitely experienced some highs and lows in his life, but in the end, I was absolutely blown away with the number of people he had touched and helped!
While David never completed his first attempt at a college degree at Auburn University, he was successful in achieving a great career in flying. David earned his pilot’s license in Shelbyville, and surprised me one Christmas when we all came home—he said “let’s take a ride” and drove me out to the local airport. Then we proceeded to walk out to an airplane and he said “get in, let’s take another ride”! WOW! I can tell you that it is one thing to ride in a car with your younger brother, but it is a whole other story to get in a plane and leave the ground! Anyway, he used his love for flying to develop into a very successful career. He became a corporate pilot and spent the rest of his life flying advanced airplanes for different companies—he flew MU-2’s, KingAir’s and Lear Jets. He flew all over North America and was traveling to South America for a period of time, including flying Jimmy and Rosalyne Carter to Nicaragua on some of their humanity missions. He also flew life-flight missions that took transplant teams to locations to harvest organs and return them to Nashville for waiting patients. This is really an ironic segment of his life!
Unfortunately, David had developed an alcohol problem. In early 2011, after some health issues, David and his wife, Glenda, met with a doctor at Vanderbilt’s Digestive Disease Department who was in charge of their liver transplant program. The doctor gave him a shocking report—I can quote this because David wrote this down—“You can say whatever you want to, and I am not God, I can’t tell you when you are going to die, but in my professional opinion, at best, you have 12-18 months to live. The only way to be placed on a transplant list is to remain sober for at least one year, and complete an outpatient treatment program.” David joined Alcoholics Anonymous and entered into a treatment program immediately. During the first week of September, 2011, his health started deteriorating rapidly and he was admitted to Vanderbilt University. On the night of September 13, 2011, as David put it, “God stepped in and he was moved up on the transplant priority list”. David made a commitment to God—if he could live, he would spend the rest of his life helping people. Obviously, God agreed!
For the next 6-years, David spent his life working with alcoholics and drug abusers. While continuing his religious participation in AA and staying “dry," he became a Licensed Alcohol and Drug-Abuse Counselor. David spent his time working with multiple After-Care groups and local judges who could steer people in need to these treatment programs. I really have no idea how many people David touched over the last 6-years, but I know the number is staggering. By the way, while he was pursuing his commitment to God to help people, he also enrolled in Middle Tennessee State University, and he completed his Bachelor’s degree! He wanted to do that for himself, his family and also for Mom and Dad—Terry and I flew up to watch him “walk and get his diploma. What a great day!
During the last year, David had developed a bad cough, and we really don’t know what the doctors were telling David—he was an extremely heavy smoker. We did find evidence that David knew about a spot on his lungs back during the summer, but being a stubborn Templeton, he did not tell anyone. The family finally learned of this problem in mid-October—there was a tumor in his right lung that had formed around an artery, and was inoperable. The treatment prognosis was being developed, but the outlook was apparently not good. Those who saw David every day knew that his health was failing based on weight loss and lack of stamina. However, he continued to put forward the optimistic and positive outlook.
I talked to David on Thanksgiving Day—he actually sounded good, although I could tell he was tired. He has actually worked some mid-night shifts at a local treatment center earlier that week if you can believe it! On Monday night, November 27, he began having problems at home and Glenda called 911 to get him to the hospital. He went to the Murfreesboro emergency room and was immediately rushed to Vanderbilt in Nashville. We believe they lost him a couple of times during the transit, and after a rough Monday night, he was stabilized and moved to a room in ICU. Terry and I travelled to Nashville as quickly as we could, arriving at his bedside around midnight on Tuesday. While we were traveling, he apparently had a severe coughing fit that caused severe internal bleeding around the tumor. The doctors put him into a controlled coma and paralyzed him so that he could not cough. He was on a ventilator when Terry and I arrived.
During the morning on Wednesday, all of David’s organs starting shutting down and he developed some infections in his bloodstream. After an extensive consultation with a truly outstanding medical team at Vanderbilt, the family decided to remove the ventilator. With all of us at his side, David passed away within 15 minutes peacefully. I am certain that Dot met him at the Pearly Gates, shook her finger at him about the smoking, and then gave him the best hug in the world!
David did not want any memorial service. He had always told us that he wanted his ashes to be spread from an airplane—I had told him that this would be considered air pollution (and he laughed at that). This will be the plan sometime in the future. If you are so inclined, we are letting people know that they can celebrate his life with a small contribution to the organ donation organization, Donate Life America, 701 East Byrd Street 16th Floor, Richmond, VA 23219.
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